Check in for the Wonder 11/11/2007 - 11/15/2007

[jayally]

updated- this is the annual pin trading cruise- Pirates of Castaway Cay. Should hopefully be a nice addition to our already booked cruise.

I did not see any threads started for the Disney wonder leaving on a 4 day 11/11/2007 thru 11/15/2007. I just upgraded to a cat 6, secret veranda room 6634 with a 3 night stay at the poly as part of the land/sea package. It will be me, Michelle, 39 (oh my! I just realized I will be turning 39 a couple days before the cruise! :sad2: ) a divorced mother of a soon to be 14 year old Son and 10 year old daughter. We would love to make some new friends on our trip!

Come join the fun as we countdown to November 2007!

[whnim64]

I did not see any threads started for the Disney wonder leaving on a 4 day 11/11/2007 thru 11/15/2007. I just upgraded to a cat 6, secret veranda room 6634 with a 3 night stay at the poly as part of the land/sea package. It will be me, Michelle, 39 (oh my! I just realized I will be turning 39 a couple days before the cruise! :sad2: ) a divorced mother of a soon to be 14 year old Son and 10 year old daughter. We would love to make some new friends on our trip!

Come join the fun as we countdown to November 2007!
Hi, Michelle. I started a Nov. 11, 2007 thread several months ago, but never got any replies. It will be an 'all girls' cruise for me, 2 DD's will be 27 and 30, DD friend, 30, and my best friend. We have SPH rooms reserved. I'll be leaving my DH and DS (then 13!) at home. It will be my first time on the Wonder and the first time ever on a cruise for the others. I've been on the Magic twice. Glad to see that we won't be alone on the ship :rotfl2: . I know that 4 days will be WAY to short for me, but it's better than nothing.

[jayally]

Welcome! I guess there are not many people who plan so far in advance. :confused3 I read through all the pages but did not see any post for Nov 11th 2007. I think I am going to get disney burnout if I read these boards everyday for the next 13 months! but I do learn so much more and it keeps me saving my pennies! What are SPH rooms? I snagged a secret verandah room for a category 7 price so I am happy plus we went from the CBR to the Poly. A nice trade up for $422 more. Last year we did the 3 day cruise/4 day land and liked it so we are trying the 4 day cruise with the 3 dayland and adding on 4 more days after the cruise to take advantage of the 7 day park hoppers . My daughter wants to cruise and my son wants WDW so I am hoping we will all be happy.

[whnim64]

Welcome! I guess there are not many people who plan so far in advance. :confused3 I read through all the pages but did not see any post for Nov 11th 2007. I think I am going to get disney burnout if I read these boards everyday for the next 13 months! but I do learn so much more and it keeps me saving my pennies! What are SPH rooms? I snagged a secret verandah room for a category 7 price so I am happy plus we went from the CBR to the Poly. A nice trade up for $422 more. Last year we did the 3 day cruise/4 day land and liked it so we are trying the 4 day cruise with the 3 dayland and adding on 4 more days after the cruise to take advantage of the 7 day park hoppers . My daughter wants to cruise and my son wants WDW so I am hoping we will all be happy.
I'm sorry to say that I'm addicted to these boards. SPH are the secret porthole rooms. We'll get a partial view with a cat. 10 pricetag. We've been in a cat. 11 and a cat. 7 navigator's verandah, so this will be something different for me.

[gracia98]

Hi!

I'm Stefanie and we'll be on the 11/11 Wonder trip, too. I will be going with DH and our 2 kids, currently 3 and 5, so they'll be 4 and 6 when the time comes. This is will be our second Wonder Cruise. Went for the first time in October 2005. I think we have a Cat. 6 Outside Verandah. Don't remember for sure. The kids are already excited! We live about an hour from Disney World and go there often during the cooler months. But the loved the cruise too so we are doing it again! :banana: :cool1:

Stefanie

[jayally]

Welcome Stephanie! It's going to be hard to keep excited for the next 13 months so I hope this board will keep reminding why I am trying save money for our trip. :wave2:

[whnim64]

Hi Sefanie. This will be my first time on the Wonder, and I can't believe I have to wait so long! I'll try to help keep this thread on the first page so others may see and join in.



Hi!

I'm Stefanie and we'll be on the 11/11 Wonder trip, too. I will be going with DH and our 2 kids, currently 3 and 5, so they'll be 4 and 6 when the time comes. This is will be our second Wonder Cruise. Went for the first time in October 2005. I think we have a Cat. 6 Outside Verandah. Don't remember for sure. The kids are already excited! We live about an hour from Disney World and go there often during the cooler months. But the loved the cruise too so we are doing it again! :banana: :cool1:

Stefanie

[jayally]

sorry for misspelling your name stefanie :guilty: Hoppefully as Nov 2006 rolls around more people will be joining us early birds. :cool1: I am worried I will not have enough saved for us to have a really nice trip, 2006 has already gone by so fast and I know next year will fly by!

[whnim64]

sorry for misspelling your name stefanie :guilty: Hoppefully as Nov 2006 rolls around more people will be joining us early birds. :cool1: I am worried I will not have enough saved for us to have a really nice trip, 2006 has already gone by so fast and I know next year will fly by!
I know what you mean. I was just calculating how much I need to put down every month for the next 10 months to pay off the cruise, let alone for gas, hotel, shipboard account, tips, etc. I keep thinking that I'll just save a couple of paychecks, but we're going to Chicago in a couple of weeks to see the King Tut exhibit and staying overnight. I'm too chicken to drive in Chicago, so we're taking Amtrak up and back, so that will be taxi fares, too, unless we're brave enough to try public transportation :eek: . It will be the first time in years that DH and I have gotten a weekend away together. DS will be staying with one of our fellow cruisers for the weekend.

[gracia98]

Wow, was looking at your tickers and it is 402 days away!!! That's a long time!! We really thought about going this November, but since we just cruised on the Wonder last year we thought 2007 would be a time to go, plus they say the earlier you book the cheaper, right!? I did find out that they are doing FL resident discounts for this November, but I never looked into it since I just booked for Nov 2007.

Did you all book through Disney or other TA? We booked through AAA.

Stefanie

[whnim64]

Wow, was looking at your tickers and it is 402 days away!!! That's a long time!! We really thought about going this November, but since we just cruised on the Wonder last year we thought 2007 would be a time to go, plus they say the earlier you book the cheaper, right!? I did find out that they are doing FL resident discounts for this November, but I never looked into it since I just booked for Nov 2007.

Did you all book through Disney or other TA? We booked through AAA.

Stefanie
I booked through DCL because I had sent a request to inventory control for the secret porthole rooms, then I transferred my ressie to DU. We went through them before and were happy with their service. With winter coming, I wish I was a FL resident! We're firm believers in booking early. We booked our 5/06 cruise on 9/30/04! The price went up $$$$ from the time we booked and when we sailed.

[jayally]

I booked through DCl and then read about the secret verandah and porthole rooms so I ended up changing my deck 2, cat 9 room for the obstructed verandah room in cat 7 (actually a cat 6) room on deck 6. I also was then able to upgrade our land portion from the CBR to the Poly- the upgrade price was a total of $422 for 3 of us. The price did increase a bit from when I first booked in JULY! I am sure it has gone up quite a bit already. The earlier you book the better. I am transferring my reservation to Du for a $100 shipboard credit. I liked have the flexibility booking with Disney but now I am settled with what I want I will let a TA take over. Best to book with disney as you can always transfer your reservation to a TA but it is not as easy to do it the other way around.

I need to save $400 a month to pay for everything- $200 to the cruise and $200 for spending money, airfare, rental car, emergency money etc. Some months are going to be hard so I will pay extra when I can. I have not paid anything yet this month as it is a tough one.

I have tried to find lot's of ways to save.

I have bank of america and signed up for their "keep the change" program. I have about $40-$50 per month goes into my savings- any change left over from a dollar when I use my ATM. I purposely use it often and pump gas to $40.01 etc.

I also have a empty bottled water bottle I bought at walmart for $6. I put our names all over it along with disney stickers and "vacation fund". I cut a slot in the top and taped it in place so it will be hard to remove. I put all my change in it and roll bills and paperclip them together. Some rolls have $20's, $10's, $5's or just dollars. I am looking forward to unrolling them and be surprised how much I have saved. I know one roll has about $75 from something I sold on craigslist. I told my kids who ever guess the closest to the total amount will get a bonus in their spending money. I am aiming to save about $300. I have placed our jug in a location everyone can see and posted "donations appreciated" in hopes family and friends might drop off their change! It also makes it easy for me to add my change as I walk by it.

[whnim64]

Wow, Michelle. I wish I had family and friends to hit up. We have neither around us. All it would take from me is a couple of my paychecks, but they always seem to go to something else. This month it's our weekend in Chicago. I think that will be under $500; not too bad for a weekend in the big city. I'm also looking to add to my Marriott rewards points in hopes of getting a 'free' room the night before our cruise. I'll have quite a bit on my Disney Rewards card for our shipboard account, too.

[jayally]

How can whnim64 and I have exactly the same countdown time to the second? :confused3

I unfortunately have not had anyone donate to my fund and they probably won't, but it doesn't hurt to ask :rolleyes1 . My family does not understand why we are going on the exact same trip we did in March 2005- of course we will have better rooms and a better time this round. Our last trip we had a Category 11 for 4 of us. I thought we would not spend any time in the room but my EX ruined our trip by being moody and not leaving the room often and I spent the cruise waiting for him to make up his mind on what he wanted to do. He also quit his job, moved 2 hours away for a new job and got a GF when we got home. Needless to say he is no longer my husband and I need another cruise and WDW trip to erase our last one. You'd think with a tear-jerker story like that my family would be happy to help out! Thank goodness he pays monthly support but I am still doing this on a single parent budget.

I have been doing some calculating in my head how much I have in my jug right now and I may have already surpassed my goal of $300, I think I am going to up it to $1000 since I have a year to go and throw in some $100 and $50 bills for fun. It doesn't hurt so much when I take bills or change left over at the end of the day and put it in the bottle- I would just spend it some other way anyway. The hard part is convincing myself to not take any money out of it- which is why I taped the top shut! I worry my kids may try to dump out some of it when they need money. It is very tempting. I remind them about the need to save for our trip all the time and I constantly worry how will I pay for everything.

[gracia98]

My husband has decided to take my parents and his parents along on the trip! Will call the TA ASAP since prices have already gone up since we booked just a few weeks ago. For us, family of 4, the price jumped up by over $400! Too bad we didn't book for the grandparents then, but since it is only 2 of them in each cabin, it will be less than ours by over $600.

We are going to give it to them as a Christmas surprise, but I had to tell my Mom since her job gives her a hard time for time during certain times of the year, which seems to be like 11 out of 12 months! She said she is telling her boss we already booked it as a surprise and she is going. She will be missing one important hearing (she's a property appraiser and they have petition hearings for like 6 months). But someone else could cover that for her, just that one time.

Anyway, I am excited to take the family along, but on the other hand it will be more difficult since my MIL drives us ALL crazy.

Just had to share.

Stefanie

[whnim64]

...Anyway, I am excited to take the family along, but on the other hand it will be more difficult since my MIL drives us ALL crazy.
Yes, but it's a big ship with plenty of hiding places. I've never been in the spa rainforest, but am going to find time for it on this cruise...:ssst:

[jayally]

The more the merrier! It is crazy how the prices can flucutate so much. I had wanted to go in March 2007 but the prices had already gotten out of my budget by June 2006. I am glad I booked when I did although it will be hard to anticipate our trip for so long and then have it over so fast. :( I wil have to book again for 2009 to I can spend another 2 years planning. :)

I would love to book a massage this time, I have never given myself that indulgence.

[whnim64]

The more the merrier! It is crazy how the prices can flucutate so much. I had wanted to go in March 2007 but the prices had already gotten out of my budget by June 2006. I am glad I booked when I did although it will be hard to anticipate our trip for so long and then have it over so fast. :( I wil have to book again for 2009 to I can spend another 2 years planning. :)

I would love to book a massage this time, I have never given myself that indulgence.
DH and I did the REAS package on our first cruise. It was also a first massage for both of us and we loved it. We were supposed to have a cabana massage last cruise, but I was on 48 hr. cabin restriction for our last day at Castaway Cay, and we had to miss it. I'm going to save up and indulge myself on this trip, though.

[whnim64]

I keep checking DCL's website hoping that they will relax the passport requirements to match the government's updates. One DD and I have our passports, but the other DD and friends still have to get new/renewed ones. The $95 fee is a killer for one friend who is struggling finacially.

[whnim64]

Well, as I was saying in my last post, DCL has revised their passport regulations for now. That is good news for a couple of travelers in our party! I'm trying to convince younger DD to go ahead and get her passport renewed. Her old passport is over 25 years old. She was just 2 months old in her passport picture, then!

[jayally]

I found my old passport, it expired in 1997. I will probably get a new one but still debating on the kids. I would like to take them to Europe someday as we have many family and friends there. Too bad kids are only good for 5 years.

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Howdy everyone,
I am sorry to crash your thread. My Wonder cruise isnt until April, but I am trying to spread th word to all people cruising on the Wonder from tomarrow on.


There is a thread on the main forum called:
BAD CHANGES IN THE ENTERTAINMNET ON THE WONDER
Please check it out!!
The information there affects everyone on the Wonder. Also around the 10th post are 2letters from DCL confirming what I am going to say here.

No more house band on the Wonder
NO live music at the saila way party
NO live music at Wave Bands club at night

It will all be aDJ and recorded music.
We have always had alive band, so alot of us feel this isnt right and we want DCL to bring back our live band.

DCL does listen to it's guest if they write and express their views about stuff.
So if you agree that you would like the live band would you please write DCL and tell them. It will only take 5 minutes.
here is the address:

dcl.guest.communications@disneycruise.com

If you really dont mind the recorded music that is ok too.

Thankyou for reading my letter and for helping our cause.

I wish all of you a very MAGICAL cruise

momx4, grandma x4

[whnim64]

Well, this thread is the other extreme for me. Here I was on the 'blabbermouth' thread with over 50,000 posts, and this one is struggling to stay alive. I need to get my DDs and friends to start posting here, too!

[jayally]

well we have quite a while to go! I am sure more people will get excited as Nov 2007 gets closer but we do need to keep it on the front page. :-)

[whnim64]

I'm just checking in and bumping us up.

[whnim64]

I got a postcard from Castaway Cay today. It was one of them that we tried to mail on our 5/27/06 Double Dip cruise. The post office was closed both days we were at CC, so we left the post cards with guest services. It looks as if they finally got around to mailing them!

[jayally]

just bumping this thread up. This is now the official pin trading pirate cruise.

The Disney Wonder® sets sail for a 4-night Pin Trading Adventure. This exciting cruise will feature exclusive gifts and treasure, entertainment fit for the Captain, great Disney Pins and Disney Pin sets, a wealth of Disney Pin Trading opportunities with your favorite Crew & Mates, and many more swash-buckling surprises! This Annual Disney Pin Trading Cruise launches November 11, 2007 for 4 nights of terrific Disney Pin Trading aboard the Disney Wonder! The price of the Disney pin event package is $45.00 per person to be added to the per stateroom cruise fares below. For cruise fares for the Disney Pin Trading Cruise click here.



This year's All Seasons Travel/Dizneypins.com group will be bigger and better than ever! The group will once again be hosted by Chuck and Janice Maida of All Seasons Travel and Larry Mongue of Dizneypins.com. We will host a gathering for those in our Disney Pin Trading Cruise group to get to know each other. Each member of our group will receive pins and other giveaways exclusive to our group.



Disney has yet to formally announce details for the cruise, but based on previous Disney Pin Trading cruises, your admission to the Disney Pin Trading events will most likely entitle you to the following:


1 . Complimentary Welcome Gift of a Disney Pin Trading Cruise Bag and Disney Cruise Line pins
2 . Artist seminars and signings with two DDG Artists
3 . An exciting assortment of low edition size Disney Cruise Line pins, Disney Cruise Line pin sets, and never before-created Disney Cruise Line merchandise
4 . 24 hour access to our Disney Pin Trading Cruise lounge
5 . Utilization of a Random Selection Process for purchasing all event product (no waiting in any lines)



The nominal Disney Pin Trading Cruise event fee of $45 per person will be in addition to the per stateroom rates below. Call 800-771-8690 with any questions or to reserve your space. Don't miss out on the fun!

[whnim64]

just bumping this thread up. This is now the official pin trading pirate cruise.

I had seen that this was going to be a pin-trading cruise. I'm not the least interested in pin trading and hope that it won't detract from a wonderful cruise experience for me and my group :confused3 .

[jayally]

I searched through 4 pages to find this thread. I am sure there must be more DISers sailing on this trip. 6 months to go!

[whnim64]

Bump!

[jayally]

Here is a 2nd Nov 11th thread I found. We need to combine them somehow and keep one of them at the top!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1042664

[jockey]

I have just found your thread but have posted on the other one you have mentioned above.

We are sailimng for the 1st time on this cruise and really looking forward to it! There will be me - Jill, my DH and our DS who will be 26 months!:)

[toxiktoast]

I already posted on the other thread. I didn't see this one before.

My fiance and I are getting married on this cruise.
I didn't know it was a pin trading cruise. Has anyone done this before? We are treating 16 members of our family to this cruise so they can attend the wedding. Now I'm wondering if we should add this package for everyone, if it's even still available. Not all of the guests are Disney fans, but some are. Is it worth it? :confused3:

[jayally]

Congratulations on the upcoming wedding! :thumbsup2 My daughter loves weddings and will be happy to know someone is getting married on our trip.


I have never done a pin event either but read a trip report someone did for a pin event at WDW and it sounded like fun. I paid for just me so if nothing else I am only out $45 and will be able to join in any of the festivities and freebies. Being a pirate theme made it a little more appealing.

[whnim64]

bumping up to the top, again.

[jayally]

Does anyone want to schedule a DIS meet on the ship and maybe exchange little trinkets that represent who we are or where we are from? I am not sure how to go about doing that. :confused3 Should we have a list with who is going with names and ages and what cabin number? Is anyone interested in that? I have read about other DIS meets and how much fun it sounded like. We have 2 threads and somehow need to combine them into one or start a new one or just choose one to post to.

[whnim64]

Bump again. Where is everyone? My last cruise had over 40 families that got together on the DIS. We had several of us meet pre-cruise, then got to meet most of the others in the terminal. Someone made name tags for everyone, and we had shirts made up that most of us had ordered. We had a list of names with cabin numbers, and linked dining for most of us in small groups. It was great that my DS had several e-mail pals that he hooked up with right away, just as if they'd know each other for years. He was 11 at the time, as were about 10 others in our DIS group. It's always nice to see a face you know, whether you actually spend time with them, or just in passing. We're actually waiting for the Magic to come back to the Caribbean in summer so most of us can cruise together again.

[DisneyJLS]

Sorry to those of you who are seeing this for the second time. I also posted it on the other thread. (*roll call* Nov.11, 07 Wonder)
Thanks to my wonderful co-worker I have found this wonderful forum.
I will be going on this cruise with my DH (44) and DD (will be 5) with all of you wonderful people. I am very excited, my husband is interested but not nearly as excited as me, and our DD does not know about it! (yet) We are not planning on telling her until we are headed either to the airport or to the ship. We will be at WDW for 2 nights beforehand. The last three times we have been to WDW she got so wound up beforehand that she ended up being sick by the time we made it there. Also, on the Sat. b4, we will be taking her to the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique that is opening in Cinderella's Castle that day. I hope we can get a good meet & greet together on the ship. Once we get closer to the sail date we should definitely have a plan.
Looking forward to sailing with all of you! I better get back to work now.:guilty:

[drc712]

Hello all...we are on your cruise and would love to meet you all! We just switch from the Nov.4th cruise and will miss meeting that DIS boards group since we've been messaging for a while, but we are looking forward to meeting some new friends!! My DH(45), my DD(will be 4 in january) and myself (39) are making this our 3rd cruise and hope it will be as good, if not better, than the last!!

[drc712]

Hello, my DH(45), my DD(will be 4 in January and myself(39) will be joining you on your cruise. We can't wait! We are Floridians as well, from Cocoa Beach area. Hope you got your Florida residents discount. We switched cruises to get our discount, hope it was the right thing to do since we lost our Palo reservations to save a few bucks! Anyways, we are looking forward to a good time and to meet some new friends on our trip!!

[drc712]

That sounds like fun! We would love to meet some new friends early on! Hopefully we can organize something....not may responses on this forum????
What is everyone doing on the Nassau day?? I heard you can rent a room at the Comfort in and get passes to Atlantis.

[drc712]

Anyone out there for November 11th cruise????:confused3